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The 8,000-square-foot Opportunity Center has three classrooms , with two of them equipped with individualized computer stations . The Center has a spacious open indoor campus for more casual interactions . The Center has several offices for more private one-on-one discussions .
" Our main goal is to assist people with barriers – such as transportation , unhoused folks , and people with justiceinvolved backgrounds – with employment ," said Goodwill Opportunity Center Manager Jessica Bastin . " A lot of places , if you have a felony , it ' s really hard sometimes to get back into the workforce . So , what we do is help people break down those barriers .
" We offer a lot of different programs and
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services ," Bastin said . " Every person that comes in here for services is paired up with a career coach , who helps them navigate through some of those barriers . They meet one-on-one for an intake or an enrollment . This gives us an idea of where the person is at , so we can meet them where they are ."
Besides pairing their clients with a career coach , they also rely on community partners for more specialized services , such as mental health . They have partners that can meet those needs . Goodwill Opportunity Center ' s staff works to help their clients gain employment and to be self-sufficient . Once they help them gain employment , Goodwill continues to follow them up to a year .
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" We check in with them at the 30- , 60- , 90-day , 6-month , and one-year mark ," Bastin said . " We want to make sure that they ' re doing well and they ' re still moving forward ."
Goodwill also offers expungement services . They also have partners in the community that will work with people who have justice-involved backgrounds . Goodwill Industries offers workrelated transportation for its clients , and they have access to a low-interest loan program to help clients purchase their own car .
" We are able to get loans for people who wouldn ' t typically qualify for a traditional auto loan because maybe they ' ve made some bad financial decisions in the past ," Bastin stated . " We work
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with them on budgets , and we look at their credit . While we don ' t base our decisions on credit , we do run a credit report for them . We show them where they are and how we can start building them up from there ."
Goodwill ' s new Somerset relocation has been a huge boost for its Opportunity Center .
" Our former opportunity center , at the Burnside location , was in the basement ," Bastin said . " Nobody really knew we were there unless they went to the store asking for a job . Our foot traffic has increased significantly with the move ( to our new location ). We are now connected directly to the first retail superstore in the state of Kentucky ." The new Somerset Goodwill Opportunity Center has its own
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